What product is so perfect it hasnt evolved in a long time?

Hasn't changed in 182 years. It was a very obvious idea in hindsight. 

I'll go one older... the safety pin. Basically same design as the ancient Roman fibula brooch pins, but smaller and less ornamental. Example: https://www.silburycoins.co.uk/product/roman-bronze-trumpet-type-fibula-brooch-2nd-century-ad/

You might appreciate The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski. In one chapter, he covers the variations of the paperclip to its current form. Edit: swipe keyboard sucks almost as much as my proofreading.

*underlying

I have several, good call!

But you aren’t really supposed to paddle kids anymore. So I am sure wooden spoons are dying out. Too bad they didn’t have other uses.

And if I remember correctly, the archeologists thought because it was tucked into the beams of the roof, it must be religious and stored close to God. The leathersmith said no, it was stored out of reach of kids so they wouldn't hurt themselves.

The leather worker also explained why it's never been made with any material like metal, wood, or plastic; they all have their downfalls. Bone is simply superior, does the job perfectly, and only gets better with time and use.

There's a story about a woman seeing an ancient spindle of some sort that was identified as unknown and she told the docent what it was. I'm sure there are lots of feminine objects or just common sense things like knives in the rafters that are overlooked due to hubris.

The shape of these is very similar to something used by book binders, too.

I'll raise you the SM57. Still an absolute workhorse of a mic... c****, dependable, sounds great, and you could rob a bank with it. Stick a wind guard on it and it's basically an SM58. IIRC they're internally identical. The frequency difference comes from the grille. Every studio probably has about 20-30 of them stashed all over the place.

I saw one break once. Jon Otway bounced it off the stage from the top of a ladder. Sadly it didn't survive and nor did his sponsorship deal with Shure. Honestly it just made me laugh even harder

A great mic and also a melee weapon if the gig gets a bit rowdy.

They’ve probably had one change in all of that time and it was just cosmetic. My dad has a SM-58 from the late 60’s or early 70’s that has a polished body and a chromed wind screen.

This was my exact thought lol. Honorable mention for the SM7 which other than the newer B version is more or less the same as well.

Is that you romy or Michelle?

Which originally were a failed experiment for a strong glue iirc.

Apart from roads and the aqueduct, what have the Romans ever done for us?

I think I read somewhere that we've only recently figured out how Roman concrete was made. There's no way modern concrete would last 2000 years but the stuff they built their aqueducts, temples, buildings, and general infrastructure out of means it's all still standing strong in a lot of cases.

But think how much more engagement hammers would get if they had WiFi and social media features, for a low monthly subscription price.

To be fair hammers have evolved quite a bit in the recent decade. Anti-vibration technology has brought forged titanium heads and less rigid connections from the head to the handle. The functions are still the same, yet the carpenter who takes his body serious has way different hammers available to himself than 20 years ago. Source: I work with hammers.

This is an interesting one. I don’t think Leo fender would agree with you. He kept on tinkering and attempting to improve his amplifiers and instruments throughout his life. It certainly looks like he got it right because of how ubiquitous the designs are, and (at least to guitarists) how recognizable the sounds from these instruments are. I think most guitarists can identify the sound of a Strat neck pickup, or a telecaster bridge pickup. Perhaps even more so the in-between quacky sounds of position 2 and 4 on the Strat. And that’s particularly interesting, because those positions were… not part of the original design of the Strat. Guitarists found that the 3-way switch could be jammed in between positions 1&2 and 2&3 so that two pickups are active in parallel. It wasn’t intentional. It was, arguably, a flaw in the design of the switch. When you look at the history of these early fender instruments, it’s often design flaws that underpin their most iconic features. Another example: Fender worked REALLY HARD to iterate on his amplifiers to make them as clean and as loud as possible. And then, guitarists absolutely fell in love with pushing them way beyond their parameters. And then, some dude called Jim in the UK got his hands on a bassman, and decided to remove the phase inverter negative feedback loop and all of poor Leo’s hard work to make it distort more! Then, shortly afterwards, some dude out in California called Randall was like “lol let’s make a Princeton with a 100 watt power circuit”. Fender has left an indelible mark on music, and I personally own and adore many things that he designed, and many of the things that were birthed out of modifications to his designs. With instruments, I think perfection is often undesirable. Fender I think didn’t understand this - he wasn’t a musician - but he somehow managed to not understand this in precisely the right way to make beautifully imperfect things.

They haven’t evolved at all? Despite the fact that tons of strays and teles use different pickups, neck profiles, tuning machines, potting for electronics, woods, finishes, and probably a few electronics bits as well. I don’t know as much about the 50s fender amps, but the fact that people pay a premium for the vintage ones is an indication that they are not unchanged.

WD-40 is fairly well known to be the wrong answer for almost everything people use it for.

RIP WD-39 Edit - If you really need to protect metal from environmental damage, use something like CRC marine corrosion inhibitor. [https://www.crcindustries.com/heavy-duty-corrosion-inhibitor-10-wt-oz/](https://www.crcindustries.com/heavy-duty-corrosion-inhibitor-10-wt-oz/) It's liquid out of the can and seeps and creeps into crevices, as the solvent flashes off it forms an amber colored wax coating that is easily removed by solvents if required. Can be used on anything, plastic rubber metal etc.

Wd-40 is great for its original application, as a penetrant for rusty bolts. However, most people think it's a lubricant and use it for tons of things meant for that, and it is a terrible lubricant.

Came here to say the Bic Cristal. Introduced in 1950 with the intention of making a pen that doesn't dry up and/or clog so that you could always pick it up and it just writes. They created an oil-based ink specifically to achieve this. It doesn't feel great to write with for many (myself included), but it's reliable and the world's best selling pen. 

When I was a smoker i never really needed a bottle opener thanks to my trusty Bic lighter.

The guy who invented Vaseline (Robert Chesebrough) was so adamant of it’s effects, that he ate a spoonful a day. He survived to 96, which, compared to the life expectancy at the time (1933), he lived a much longer, yet successful life. Thank you Rob, you helped so many.

Yes, I wish I had kept my mom’s cast iron pan! Useful against intruders as well. So many lovingly prepared dishes in it.

Yes. And none of us ever insert them into our ear canal.

A rubber valve stem cost $0.20 back in 1920 and still costs the same today.

\+1 for this, in bicycles it actually has 2 uses, for the tires (120ish PSI max) and air shocks (350ish PSI max), it's crazy how much pressure those little bastards can hold, 10000x better than dunlop valves!

The zipper has gone through lots of evolution. Watch the varitasium video about zippers.

It has kept evolving though, splitting between a rim and an outer part, then filling the outer part with air, and constantly changing and tweaking the compounds to this day. Plus there is the wheels on the curiosity rover, that was created just a few decades ago.

We don't? The last time I used a fax was easily 10 years ago.  I get there are places that still use them, but I'd say they've been pretty well eradicated in a lot of the world. 

Japan: "Lol"

Allow me to introduce you to Japanese toilets

Oh man don’t ever use a high end Toto. It’s like sitting in first class. You’ll never want to go back.

I got a Toto bidet, which is nice but the real star of the show is the heated toilet seat.

Shhhh. They'll hear you.

Except they got rid of the polish dog and also switched from hebrew national to their own brand...so it has definitely changed.

The Ma-deuce is my absolute favorite weapon! I sometimes refer to it as the AT&T weapon because you can "reach out and touch someone", with it. I think we zeroed that gun at 1200 yards.

wait, why would they change a gun being too accurate? edit: I remembered i can google stuff. it’s because accuracy made it less effective at covering fire. interesting

They have just gone through some enshittification with plastic gears and other lower quality parts.

Nice. My first thought was the Precision Bass.

Surely the update was the Stratocaster?

Hasn't been a best thing since then

My husband keeps a stash of watch bands and pins on hand for when his break, which they inevitably do because he wears his Casio 24/7. He's got a few Citizens and other watches but they rarely see the light of day.

Casio F91W which was released in 1989 still in production today and it has exactly the same design. F91 is a “modern” version of other models that are…pretty similar to it actually.

Find a facility that uses a "Koning Vera Breast CT", your b**** will thank you! (FDA approved in the US, unsure about Universal usage around the globe)

They absolutely have changed considerably in 30 years. Lower radiation dose with similar or better image quality, the addition of ABUS and 3D… lots of innovation over the years. Perhaps more so than similar modalities like XRay.

This feels like one of those things that can be chalked up to a lack of funding spent on women's healthcare. I highly doubt there isn't a better and less intrusive way to do those screenings than putting the breasts on a table and smashing them.

The grains have absolutely evolved through selective breeding